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Save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.        

                                     Jude 1:23

George Floyd was a scumbag

DL Hughley is an idiot

Michelle Obama, Joy Reid & Ketanji Brown Jackson are Race Hustlers

These are all statements I have proudly and intentionally made in recent past social media contexts. These statements are ones that I hold sincerely, unapologetically, and with deep theological conviction.  I do not hold and publicly proclaim them with any sense of moral superiority and, in some cases, with no illusions of intellectual supremacy in the case of the women above.

I make these polemic declarations in matters wholly consistent with a marked Judeo-Christian ethos and pathos. Unlike the notion many professing Evangelicals hold most passionately, albeit ignorantly, there is no biblical mandate or command that Thy Must Be Nice. I stand with the late Voddie Baucham that Evangelicals have erroneously adopted nice as the venerated Eleventh Commandment: Thou Must Be Nice.

I write, live, and breathe as a proud Polemicist. I join an illustrious company of Polemicists, such as Martin Luther, John Owen, and, of course, my Lord & Savior, Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

Interjecting the names of Luther or Owen will raise no hackle from the informed and only raise eyebrows from the non-informed because most will possess no awareness of Owen and only a passing fancy with Luther but Luther was famous for his blunt engagements with others highlighted by his sharp tongue in responding to the hallowed Roman Catholic theologian Desiderius Erasmus in Luther’s seminal work: The Bondage of the Will. Owen suffered no fools as he dissected Arminian ideology in his classic book, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ.

What will surprise many is my characterization of Jesus Christ as a Polemicist. They naively view Jesus Christ as only being meek and mild, as someone supremely and only as a loving God. In fact, many see and abhor the God of the Old Testament as mean and only vengeful, while they embrace the supposed loving and merciful God of the New Testament.

What a misguided view of both the God of the Old and New Testaments. For the sake of this blog post, I will only concentrate on why viewing Jesus Christ as only loving and mild and not also a Polemicist is unbiblical and not particularly helpful as a guide to proper Evangelical engagement with the culture, especially today.

But let me first define terms so we are all on the same page. Just what is a Polemicist?

Polemicism is the practice of engaging in strong, verbal or written attacks or arguments against a particular opinion, person, or belief. It is often used in a controversial context and can be a highly contentious and bellicose form of debate, sometimes used to highlight the "errors" of others. The word derives from the Greek polemikos, meaning "warlike" or "hostile.

So, given this definition of Polemicism, why do I postulate that the loving and genteel Jesus Christ should be included in such a controversial category?

Well, while people love only to picture Jesus Christ as the one who invites little children to sit on his lap or not to dismiss the woman suffering from a blood disorder to touch the hem of His garment, this same Jesus is also known to say and do the following:

• Violently overturn the tables in His Father’s Temple twice

• Curses a fig so that it withered, even as it was not the season for its fruit

• Command his enemies be slaughtered before Him: But as for these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me. Luke 19:27

• Engages in name-calling on numerous occasions: But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  Matthew 23:13

• For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. Matthew 23:27

• You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Matthews 23:33

• You fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? Luke 11:40.

So, yes, the Holy Writ does indeed proclaim that Jesus Christ would never crush a bruised reed: a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory. Matthew 12:20.

Yet the question that must be obviously asked at this point is precisely who is the bruised reed? The bruised reeds in Jesus Christ’s day would have been the illiterate people who could not read or write and thus depended upon the educated priests to instruct them in the things of God. It is postulated that well over 85-90% of the population could not read or write. These are the people who were at the mercy of others for information.

These are the people whom the passage is intended to be, not the prideful and willfully rebellious Sadducees and Pharisees. So, let’s fast-forward to today. Literacy is not a significant problem in America, and if a person is illiterate, it is seldom due to, and often in spite of, the opportunities afforded to all Americans.

Believe me:

George Floyd was not a bruised reed!

DL Hughley is no bruised reed!

Obama, Reid & Brown are no bruised reeds!

In recent days, I have had a professing Evangelical female individual ask me not to include her in future communications that affirmed the ministry of the late Charlie Kirk.

The communication in question pertained to a derogatory meme regarding Charlie Kirk's intellectual prowess, to which I responded with sharp, negative comments about Obama, Reid & Brown. You see, someone circulated a social media meme ridiculing Charlie Kirk's lack of formal education in contrast to the high-brow education of Obama, Reid & Brown.

Just a few days ago, another professing Evangelical female sent me a private Facebook Messenger request not to send her communication in which I depicted someone with negative terms.

She did so because I chose to respond and subsequently share a response to a statement Hugley made, explicitly stating you had to be an idiot like DL Hughley if you agreed with his point of view.

Hughley, a famous AA comedian, posted a video where he first stated it was okay to hold different political views and then literally in the next breath declared that if one were to be a Black Conservative, that must mean they must hate Black people.

Now, I freely admit it is not desirable to go around and just willy-nilly declare people as idiots, but sometimes that is precisely the very word that one must employ. I mean, how is it simultaneously possible to be okay to hold a different political view in America and NOT be a Conservative?

Come on, there are only two major political parties in America. So if you are not a Liberal/Democrat, then the only thing that is left is being a Conservative/Republican. I can think of no more appropriate word than idiot for someone postulating such a contradictory and wholly irrational view.

So, I submit that if Jesus Christ can use such negative terms as white-washed tombs, vipers, and fools, then I humbly submit I am on solid theological grounds for employing unapologetic polemic language when I believe the situation warrants.

Now, not everyone has the same personality or temperament as yours truly, so I am not prescribing this as the preferred communication technique for every Christ-follower.

You Do You is my stern advice. It is never wise or prudent to attempt to be something or someone you are not, but for me, lives literally hang in the balance. I am not here to win friends and influence people because I know it will never be the sheer power of my will or cunning verbal ingenuity that can convince those presently trapped in utter spiritual darkness.

Yet, one thing I will never do is cower in the corner and just speak boldly as the part of the Chosen Frozen while in the safety of other Christ-followers.

I will continue to employ my polemic style where the conversation is presently taking place: in the marketplace of ideas. That primarily means on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, as well as through this blog post, which I view as a ministry to the Lord.

If you believe this method of public interaction is not for you, then so be it, but do not dare attempt to criticize or accuse me of being unloving or not promoting the Gospel, as one professing Evangelical tried to do with me recently, all the while admitting she voted for Joseph Biden because Donald Trump was a racist.

The lack of critical thinking is so rampant within the visible church. Let me close polemically: the Democratic Party is persona non grata for any Christ-followers who seek to bend the knee to Jesus Christ as Lord & Savior.

That is not the same thing as positing one must always align with the Republican Party. That will never be my position or belief.

Two things can be true at the same time. There is no perfect political party, but there are positions with which we can have no entanglement whatsoever, period, full stop, and end of story.

I abhor the ideology of the Republican Party, my Party, right or wrong, my Party just as much as my Country, right or wrong, my Country.

So, yes, I firmly believe the following with no apology:

George Floyd was a scumbag

DL Hughley is an idiot

Michelle Obama, Joy Reid & Ketanji Brown Jackson are Race Hustlers

I do not believe my conduct is outside the pale of orthodoxy.

As usual, let me know what you think. Until then, keep your hands to the plow and serve for an Audience of One.

With fear & trembling,

Ricky V Kyles Sr. DEd.Min

P.S. After I completed the post John the Baptist came to my mind as another great example of someone who leaned heavily on Polemicism to advance his ministry.

I would submit what is more desperately needed are more, not less, Polemicism today. I readily grant this approach should never be the cookie-cutter, one size fits all technique to engage the culture but the other extreme of Thy Must Be Nice must be avoided as the default proper Evangelical response.